Viagra helps kids with lung disease breathe easier, be more active: study

TORONTO (CP) - That little blue pill that has so excited men with erectile dysfunction is being used for a much more critical purpose - helping to improve the quality of life for children with an inevitably fatal lung condition.

A 12-month study of children with pulmonary hypertension shows Viagra increased blood flow to the lungs, thereby boosting the kids' ability to take part in everyday activities like walking upstairs, going to school and playing with friends.

But the drug, given in the study to 14 children aged five to 18, did not cause the sexual arousal for which it's so well-known, said lead researcher Dr. Tilman Humpl, a pediatric cardiologist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

"We asked all of the parents for that, but neither in the younger boys nor the older boys was that reported," said Humpl, whose study is published this week in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

"What you usually need, and also for treatment for erectile dysfunction, you have to have a sexual environment . . . Parents asked this question as well, and some of them were concerned."

Pulmonary hypertension is a rare condition that affects both children and adults. In children, it can develop because of congenital heart disease, but for most sufferers the cause is unknown.

The condition results when the walls of tiny blood vessels in the lungs become narrowed over time, making it increasingly difficult for the heart to pump blood through the lungs.

As a result, patients are fatigued, short of breath, can lose consciousness and have low exercise capacity. Most die within four to six years of diagnosis. For some, a lung or heart-lung transplant can prolong life, but these operations are frequently unsuccessful.

"Some of the children still walk around and try to keep up with their peers, but most of them have limited possibilities," Humpl said. "Sometimes, they can't walk up from the first to the second floor because they are short of breath."

But when given Viagra, known generically as sildenafil, both blood flow to the lungs and the ability to exercise rose significantly in the children, he said.

In a test measuring how far the children could walk in six minutes, they were able on average to add more than 150 metres to the distance they could manage before they began taking Viagra.

Andrew Geib, a mechanic from Manitoulin Island in Ontario, said the drug has helped his 14-year-old daughter Amanda lead a more normal life.

"For quite a while, she was improving and now she's stabilized," he said from his hometown of Manitowaning. "She's improved a long ways from where she started out.

"Right now she tires a little bit quicker than the average kid, but she's not too, too far behind."

Historically, there's a survival rate of about 37 per cent at one year, but in this study all the participants were alive by the study's completion. (Five of the children have since died.)

Still, Viagra is not a cure, Humpl said, but added that it has given the children and their families a chance for more quality time together.

Cardiologist Evangelos Michelakis, director of the pulmonary hypertension program at the University of Alberta, said increasing kids' ability to walk an additional 150 metres "is a huge improvement."

Michelakis, who has studied the effects of Viagra in adults with the condition, said its true value in treating the disease won't be known until studies compare the medication against a placebo in a much larger trial.

Viagra, which has not been approved for use in Canada for pulmonary hypertension (the U.S. approved it last week for adults only), has a number of advantages - it's relatively cheap compared to other drugs for the condition and has few side-effects, he said Monday from Edmonton.

Most importantly, it seems to work.

"There is a biological effect that appears to be sustained, and I think with one or two large, controlled trials, this drug in the next few years will become standard treatment, alone or as part of a combination treatment as it's now becoming in adults."